//------------------------------// // The End of the Beginning // Story: The Aces // by Blackout //------------------------------// A metal creak could be heard and it echoed through the hall behind him and down the stairs before him. Blackout slowly made his way down a series of stairs that almost never ended. After what seemed like one hundred steps he came across a big metal door, this one looked thick and had Grimlin writing on it. He took the time to try and listen through it but it was too thick and sealed shut. Giving up, he decided to open it but was not expecting the noise to be so loud. Tumblers rolled, hinges grinded, and gears moved at once to create a symphony of metal racket. The door swung open on its own, revealing the single dark pony with a look that said "oops." There had to be at least twenty Gargoyles in the large room that had steam releasing out of preassure valves everywhere. There were tubes on the ground that was pumping some type of liquid through it. Crates were stacked on top of each other and dim workshop lights hung off the high cieling. "How did you get in here!?" The cowerdly Brigadier said in shock of his preasence. Unsurprisingly he ran and just about everybody in the room raised thier guns to him. Acting quickly, he rolled to the nearest crate before they opened fire. Bullets bounced off the metal walls and sparks popped here and there. The major mistake was they all opened fire at the same time and would in turn reload at the same time. Taking the oprotunity of cease fire, Blackout popped up from his cover and shot three rounds into the nearest targets chest. Moving like clockwork, he picked a target and shot three rounds into it. In five seconds he managed to take down seven targets before they reloaded thier weapons. The new volley of projectiles forced Blackout behind more crates. While waiting for another oprotunity he spots something. It was the Brigadier entering whta looked like a large cylinder on train tracks. They had three big cones on the back and those pipes with fluid were hooked up to the side of this thing. "So long Colonel." he called to Blackout. "For your sake, I hope you know how to work these things." he continued as he entered the cylinder. The cones on the back soon spat flames and the large steel can began moving. Great, he got away. But his problems didn't end there. The room became illuminated with a red flashing light and a klaxon alam blared and echoed through the tunnel the rocket cylinder moved through, a light from the flames could still be seen. This didn't happen many times but he figured that red lights, alarms, and fleeing soldiers usualy ment a bomb. He didn't waist a moment, he sprinted up the stairs as the other round vehicles departed. The climb up seemed longer than the one down now that he was running for his life and not to end another's. He finaly made it up the large flight of stairs and put all of his explosives on the walls of the main level just to be safe. The only problem was that if the place was going to explode, by self destruct of course, then how will they get away. The room downstairs was huge, probably covered in explosives, running down the road past the gates wouldn't cut it. Then it hit him. The cliff! The idea popped in his head like a lightbulb. Wasting no time he sprinted on all fours out of the facility to find it compeletly captured by the remaining Equestrians. "Lets go, this whole cliff will go up in flames any moment now!" "Were do we go?" a now paniced soldier asked. "Off the cliffside, jump off!" "Are you crazy?!" a familiar looking pony questioned. "You said we are all pegasis right?" and with haste Blackout rushed past the wall gesturing for the rest of the ponies to follow. "Are you su..." his sentence was cut off when Blackout shoved him off the cliffside. "What are you starin' at? GO!" the rest of the ponies shrug and jump off. Blackout signals the sniper team to move down the mountain. He waited for them to jump off before signaling the other two Aces to jump off, then he followed suite. Jumping in the air over the edge he met a cold rush of air hit his face, which would only get colder as he gained speed. Even over the howling of the wind in his ears he could hear the massive explosion behind him. Everything was finaly going his way, he was even having fun, until he heard something zip by his head. Turning in mid air he spotted about six Gargoyles falling behind him. No longer having the rifle he had earlier, he pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at the target in front. The sound of the gun shot was muffled from the wind and the cartridge headed towards the remaining five targets. He then fired two shots at the next target. One managed to hit him in the shoulder and the other missed. Firing with your arms moving due to the wind was a challenge for Blackout, he never did this before. He fired one more round and it connected with his wing, crippling it, no use wasting another bullet, he would die from the fall. He shot another in the foot, then the head. The next target fired and hit Blackout's chest, the pain was familiar, but due to the jacket he was wearing it did not pierce his skin. Blackout returned fire, shooting twice, hitting the attacker in the head. Two left, he fired the last three rounds in the clip. The Gargoyle was killed but that left one more. Thinking quickly he grabed the empty clip and let go of it when it was below the remaining soldier's head. The heavy metal case struck him in the eye with great force and he convulced in pain, directing him away from the group. When he turned around, he found the group had left, already back in the skies, and he was still plummeting to his death. He paniced to shed his restricting CWC gear. With moments to spare he tore off the winter gear and spread his wings. The downward momentum shot him to break-neck speeds as a vapor cone formed around him. He'd seen this when Mig did his rainbooms but looked diferent on the inside. He was brought back to reality when his face met the cold snow of another mountain. "Well looks like another job well done, eh laddie?" Gear Head said smiling at the buried pony. "With a price though." responded a snow covered Blackout. "I knew it was a bad idea." "We all did, we can't fix that now." "Aye, it'd be best to move on." "I guess we better get back to base then huh?" "Well I don't know, your the commander, arn't ya?" "Right, back to base for debrief." two months later "Tell me again why I'm in this thing?" asked a nervous Blackout "Because it would be a great honor to be the first living thing in space." Gear Head replied. Things seemed to have calmed down since the last raid two months back, and Gear Head used this time to set a milestone: space travel. It was a command, well more of an idea, that Celestia gave to him. "But I never volunteered for this, you just put me in this heavy suite and shoved me in the tin can." "You may not have volunteered, but somepony decided to do it for you." "And could you tell who this pony is so I can kick thier flank?" before he could get a responce he heard snickering from the mechanic. "It was Celestia." he responded, "She said to me that the only pony she wanted to use this thing was you." "Well I don't appreciate this honor of her's. I'm getting out." "Oh, you don't want to do that." "And why not." "Because your going to space in five..." Oh crap. "four..." "You better not." "three..." "Your bluffing, I know it." "two..." Crap, he's not bluffing. "one. We have lift off, I repeat we have lift off." Blackout managed to slip into his seat before what felt like a mattress smashed him into it. The force was keeping Blackout from moving, even his head was pressed firmly againt the cusioned seat. He didn't know how fast he was going, and he didn't want to. The ship rattled and shook from the thick atmosphere breaking across the coned nose of the rocket. He could feel the preassure start to ease before he heard Gear's voice come on the radio, "Stage one complete, stage two engage." Blackout was kicked back into his seat as the primary rockets broke off and the secondaries fired. It eased off again, and Gear's voice came on again, "Stage two complete, breaking off. Ok Blackout, I'm going to steer this thing so your put into the moon's orbit, I'm also opening the cockpit window, from what I undestand it should be quite a view. Oh yeah, and your free to move around as well." Blackout finaly relaxed as the metal panels covering the thick glass windows slid down, revealing an unbelievable sight. Stars, clearer than they are at night, dottet the sky and moon, larger than life, sat before the Colonel. "Wow. Hey Gear you should see this, Gear?" Blackout called but only recieved static through the radio. Soon after the cabin darkened, and a red light was all that illuminated the controls. "Hey whats going on?" "It's OK, you'll be fine." assured a calming voice. "I shut down most of the electronic in the ship so I could talk to you in private "Celestia?" "Yes, I have something of the utmost importance to tell you." --------------- "What just happened, I've lost all connections with Blackout!" asked a panicked Gear Head. "I don't know, sir. We're running diagnostics as we speak but nothing foreign is showing up, whatever is interfering with the ship, its not electronic!" --------------- "You see that moon your orbiting?" "Yes." "It contains one of the biggest threats to Equestria, and the World." "But how?" "Have you ever heard about Princess Luna?" "Princess Luna?" "She was my sister, before she became possesed by a powerful evil called the Nightmare. It caused my sister to become jealous of my position as raiser of the sun and with the power of the Nightmare, she threatened to keep the sun down and have only night." "That's it, I mean that's horrible!" "Yes it is." "So, what do you want me to do? Blow up the moon?" "No!" she shouted, startling him. "As you may know the Summer Sun Celebration is comming up." "Ah yes, the solstice." "It was the day of the summer solstice that I imprissoned Luna in the Moon for one thousand years." "So, she's coming back?" "Yes, I need you to keep guard of my student Twilight Sparkle." "You mean that purple book worm, I mean librarian." "She is my best student and I have faith that she can stop Nightmare, I need you to protect her and any friends she makes while she is in Ponyville." "You can count on me Princess." "Good, looks like your running out of fuel, better not get you trapped in orbit, that would be disastrous." The ship shook as it was magicaly directed back towards Earth. The cabin lit up again as the ship regained power. "Blackout are you there, what happened?" Gear Head called from the control room. Blackout had to come up with an excuse and fast, the only reason Celestia would spend this many bits on a project she would sabotage was to share something nothing could hear. "Uh, solar interferance?" "Umm... Ok. Its seems your heading back to Equestria but because of the disruption your not head to the intended landing spot, your current trajectory shows that your heading to a small town called Ponyville." "What about the landing, there's nothing but rock down there?" "Don't worry, the hull can take it and I designed special shock absorber in your suite and the cabin. I can't talk to you due to rentry so contact me when you land, you'll have to find a way out of there." "Will do, wish me luck." the radio went to static as you hit the atmosphere with a thud. Fire surrounds the ship as it speeds to the ground. Finaly the vessle touches down, well more like crashed down. "Hey Gear, are you there?" "Yeah, you landed?" "Yep, how do I get out of here?" "Head to the back of the ship, your locker is there." Blackout navigated his way up the verticle halls untill he hit a wall, opposite to the wall was his locker. "Ok, I'm here." "Good, in the locker you'll find your stuff and what may look like a metal pipe." "Um, Ok, what is it?" "A high-powered laser! It should cut through the hull and create an opening. Just aim it and press the red button on the side." Complying Blackout pointed it at the metal wall and pushed the button. The laser began to shake as small yet powerful generators worked to build energy and soon after a visible red stream shot out and melted the metal in front of him. Moving it in a sloppy circle, he cut a hole in the ship and finaly freed himself from the metal death trap. It wasn't very bright out side, with the trees blocking the sun, and nobody was around, except for a small, frightened, purple pony.